Industry and Synergies

Buffer Preservation

KIC believes that protection from residential development pressure through preservation of its buffer zone is critical to the KIA’s ongoing success. The buffer zone was established to protect the community from industry activities – as well as industry from the community. It is KIC’s position that without the extensive buffer, the KIA could not have grown to become what it is – the State’s premier industrial area. However, protection of the buffer has proven to be an ongoing challenge for KIC.

KIC’s view is that the buffer zone should be protected under the provisions of a Special Control Area, and further under an Environmental Planning Policy (EPP) and a State Planning Policy (SPP). Protection under these policy statements would enable KIC to achieve its goals and to plan for a long-term future in the KIA.

“KIC believes that the Industry Protection Area (also known as the buffer zone) should be at the very least protected under the Metropolitan Region Scheme (MRS) as a Special Control Area. Implementation of a Special Control Area will provide the necessary certainty to industry, to the government regulators, their statutory and transport planners, and to the community.”

Governance

The KIA is governed by three different local governments. This means three different approaches and attitudes to industry, as well as three different town planning schemes. In no way can this be considered efficient for industry, or for the development of the industrial area from a State perspective.

On this basis, KIC’s position in relation to local government boundary reform was that there should be just one local government that encapsulates the WTC, as well as the surrounding communities. This view remains. With the demise of the local government reform process, the issue remains unresolved, while the complexity is increasing.

In the past the definition of the KIA has been considered as “everything inside the buffer”. As the buffer line is the same as the boundary defined by the Western Australian Planning Commission in 2010, and as was described in the Liberal Government’s Western Trade Coast Industry Protection Zone Bill, KIC’s position remains the same – that the Western Trade Coast should be governed under the one local government, not the current three.

It seems increasingly possible that the advent of a new port in Kwinana will bring about a revision of the governance structure for the Western Trade Coast.

Process Water Availability and Disposal

Industry expansion is becoming processwater constrained. There were hopes that a managed aquifer solution was going to be able to resolve this issue. This now seems less likely, but not from a technical perspective. Regulatory nervousness very late in the process is building hurdles that seem likely to be the demise of the project. New additional sources will need to be found if industry is going to be able to grow and develop unfettered by water shortages.

This issue was handled by the KIC Eco-Efficiency committee in the past. In more recent times the Planning and Environment committee has managed this issue. With the possibility of existing groundwater allocations diminishing in the future, the long-term solution is yet to be decided, and there are a number of options available. Some of these include more waste water recovered from the ocean outfall pipeline, and increasing opportunities within member site boundaries, through new technologies for water recovery and recycling. Water supply could become a limiting factor on the attractiveness of the KIA for new companies considering locating to the area, but it is reasonably clear that solutions will be put in place before that outcome would occur.